1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for planning the use of manufacturing resources, more particularly, the invention relates to attribute based planning systems and methods that can operate in highly complex and dynamic environments and generate plans for the use of multiple resources in order to fulfill demand.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The problem of planning for the use of manufacturing resources in order to meet demand has always been a daunting task for any business having significant manufacturing capacity and/or multiple sourcing. The problem of planning the use of resources becomes even more acute in today's competitive environment because today's business climate forces many businesses to follow certain business philosophies, such as just-in-time concepts, that require highly discipline resource planning.
A business, such as a large manufacturer, is typically made up of a vast network of manufacturing, warehousing, marketing and other production/marketing sites. Further, each of these sites may consist of a number of resources such as assembly lines and storage facilities all interacting and working together to produce finished goods for customers. The complexity of manufacturing networks alone often makes it extremely difficult to plan and schedule the vast numbers of resources that typically make-up a manufacturing or supply chain network.
Several other factors add to the complexity of trying to plan and schedule resources in a manufacturing or supply chain network. For instance, businesses typically receive numerous orders from numerous customers, each order and each customer having different priorities and order requirements. Further, businesses will typically need to be able plan for forecasted future orders and to determine when material must be ordered and capacity reserved for expected customer orders. Automakers, for example, may receive an order from a fleet dealer, a rental car company, a private citizen or any number of both large and smaller volume customers. Each order may consist of several items. For automakers these could be different models of cars with different options. Each of these orders may also include other important information such as the date or range of dates that the customer would like to receive or be able to obtain the order goods, the location where the goods will be available such as a specific dealer site, the customer chosen option packages and possible substitute configurations. Thus, each order will typically have several parameters that define how, what, when and where that the order must be fulfilled.
Many manufacturers today adhere to one or more business philosophies such as just-in-time principles to reduce costs. Unfortunately each of these principles may be an obstacle to another principle that the manufacturer may also want to follow. Further, such philosophies add to the complexity of trying to plan the fulfillment of orders and may make it even more difficult to plan the use of resources in supply chain networks.
In order to plan effectively and accurately, planning systems will preferably be able to take into account the various constraints that may be associated with each network resource. These constraints may be based on a number of factors such as time, quantity, quality, types of goods available, and the like. Any model used to represent a resource network will also preferably be robust so that the dynamic nature of many resource networks may be accounted for. The addition of these fluid constraints in any model used with a planning system adds to the overall complexity of the planning process.
In addition, models used for planning must take into account timing issues. In order to plan network resources, realistic timing requirements must be taken into account. This means that actual time lags, for example, the advance time needed to order a component parts for an assembly line before the parts are actually needed, must be accounted for. In addition, time availability of items, such as finished goods, work in progress and raw materials, needs to be accounted for in any effective planning system.
For various reasons, some of which were described above, the cost of planning the use of resources to meet demand may be prohibitively high. In order to efficiently and effectively meet the planning needs of today's businesses, a planning system and method that is highly robust and that can recognize and accommodate the numerous constraints and the sometimes conflicting goals of businesses is highly desirable.